Heart of a Ninja
by Dylan Millwood
Summary: Adopted from my friend pain17ification. With his World lost to Darkness, Naruto and Kurama escape using a last resort. They find themselves on a shore facing a dark sea while a forgotten Master finds them. With his partner as his Key, Naruto faces the Darkness that took everything from him.
1. Chapter 1

"Speech"

 _'Thoughts'_

 **"Kurama Talking/Techniques"**

(Translations and A.N. Numbers)

[Scene Shift]

Chapter 1: Meeting in the Darkness

The sound of waves hitting the shore was the first thing he heard as he woke up. His body was wracked with pain and it hurt to even twitch or breathe. What happened and where was he? Why was he hearing the sound of water when he was nowhere near it?

He slowly opened up his eyes, revealing bright blue irises to the world, and painfully sat up. The first thing he saw was the dark sand of the shore. It wasn't a natural tan or even a rare white, it was a dark gray. He turned his gaze and saw the sea, but the water was as black as night and the only source of light in the area was a silvery moon on the horizon. He kept moving his gaze and saw that he was next to a rock face and that thorn like structures stretched over the water, but they didn't go that far.

What was this place? Why didn't he feel anything from it? All he felt was emptiness and pain, though the latter was because of his still healing injuries. He made to rub his head, but he stopped when he felt something move within his grasp. He looked down to his right hand and gaped at what he was holding.

It was…a weapon? He didn't know, but it sure looked like one. The handle was a dark red, almost like blood, and had a guard that surrounded his hand. The guard was a bright orange and had a silver chain on the bottom of it that had a keychain at the end. The keychain was in the design of a red swirl with a black outline on it. From the top of the handle, a black blade stretched for about three feet and a black fox head protruded from the side at the top of the blade. The fox head's eyes had red sclera, a bright orange iris, and a black slit pupil.

A voice whispered in his head and echoed, " _KeyBlade…_ "

His brow rose slightly in confusion. Key…Blade? What was a KeyBlade? And why did he apparently have one? He closed his eyes and tried to speak to his friend, but they widened in shock when he couldn't hear anything. The voice he had grown accustomed to hearing from within his mind was gone and where his friend once resided in his mind was empty.

What was going on here? First he wakes up on a dark shore, then he apparently has a weapon known as the KeyBlade, and now he can't hear or talk to his last known friend.

He then closed his eyes in thought and tried to remember what happened before he woke up here. The last thing he remembered…

[Flashback]

He was panting and nearly out of energy as he stood before the last two Uchiha; Obito and Sasuke. His clothes were torn, his headband destroyed, and his skin riddled in cuts and bruises. Of course, the two Uchiha weren't much better and Obito had his Sharingan cut into, making it useless; so that was a plus.

Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune and his last surviving friend, had given him all of the energy he could take and it was barely enough to take down the Gedō Mazō (Demonic Outer Statue) and the chakra it had stored within it. Now, he barely had half of his reserves left and Kurama was focusing on regaining his own lost power.

"It's over for you, Naruto," Obito said calmly. "You may have stopped the Gedō Mazō, but I will still rid this world of its light!"

"This is the end for you, dobe," Sasuke stated as his **Susano'o** (Tempestuous God of Valor) surrounded him with its dark and corrupted power.

Uzumaki Naruto lowered his head as tears welled from his eyes. The war…the Fourth Great War had taken its toll on everyone and left him with no one but the fox sealed within him. His friends, his precious people, were all gone or close to gone. He couldn't save them, even if he desperately wished to. _'How did it come to this, Kurama?'_

 **"I don't know, Naruto… Perhaps…Darkness is the real source of power in the world…"**

Naruto clenched his fists in anger as he rose to his feet. His head was still down, with the bangs of his golden blonde hair shadowing his blue eyes. _'No… Darkness can't be the real source of power. It may seem that way since this world is being plunged into it, but even in the deepest Darkness…Light shines on through!'_

With that though, power exploded from him; power he didn't have before. Where before his chakra was a bright blue, it was now nearly white and shone brightly throughout the battle field with its glow.

 _'This power… Where is it coming from? It feels so warm…so bright,'_ Obito thought in confusion as he readied his war fan and Sasuke readied an arrow with his **Susano'o**.

 _'Kurama…do you feel it?'_ Naruto asked his tenant suddenly.

 **"Yeah, I do… It feels like Darkness is engulfing this world and this power you've tapped into is holding it back; but it doesn't look like it will last forever…"**

 _'Yeah… I figured as much. But it looks like its pooling around the two of them,'_ he commented while referring to the Uchiha.

The Bijuu hummed in thought as it looked through Naruto's eyes and saw dark puddles form near the two Uchiha. From the Darkness, two glowing yellow orbs appeared in each and began to rise from the puddles. The Darkness took shape and form and stood behind the two Uchiha with its head tilted in wonder.

It had a round, spherical head with circular, glowing yellow eyes. It also had two long, twisted antennae sprouting out of the top of its head. Each of its hands had three clawed fingers, and its feet were large and lacked any discernible digits. With the exception of its eyes, the body was completely black and blended in with the shadows easily.

Before either of the Uchiha knew it, the creatures began to latch onto them and were unaffected by the retaliatory strikes that were launched. Even the **Susano'o** proved ineffective as the creature simply phased through it and latched on to Sasuke. The Darkness from the creatures engulfed them and surrounded the Uchiha in twin spheres of pure dark energy. Their cries of pain soon faded and when the spheres disappeared and presented them, Naruto was left shocked at what he saw.

Obito had become a large lion made of Darkness with glowing yellow eyes and sharp yellow fangs. As for Sasuke, he became a large winged creature that had a hawk's body, but the neck and head were that of a serpent. Like Obito, his body was pure black, save for the eyes and fangs which were a bright yellow.

The two new creatures of Darkness turned to Naruto and bared their fangs at him, making the blonde tense and prepare to defend himself. However, it wasn't needed as dark puddles appeared beneath them and they sank into them, leaving without a trace.

As soon as they were gone, the land surrounding Naruto became engulfed in what could only be described by him as an enormous dark puddle with him standing in the only unaffected area. However, the area was slowly getting engulfed as well and he began to panic. _'Kurama, what do we do?!'_

The fox growled as it wracked its brain for any ideas. Soon, one came to it and it began to mold its energy in a way it never did before. The blonde felt the fox's power form in his right hand and looked to see a swirling mass of red and white energies. **"Quick, before I lose focus, slam your hand on the ground and unleash the energy! We're leaving this world!"**

 _'What do you mean?! Why are we leaving when we could try and save others?!'_

 **"Kid, trust me… They're already gone… You're all that's left. Now slam your hand and let's get out of here!"**

Naruto cursed as a tear left his eyes. He then slammed his energy-filled hand on the ground beneath him and unleashed the power within it. He was then surrounded by the energy and felt his body fade away. Before he fully disappeared, he whispered out, "I'm sorry…"

[End Flashback]

 _'I remember now… My world was engulfed in Darkness and I had to leave… But then, what happened to Kurama?'_ he thought while he looked to the KeyBlade in his hand. _'Did he become this…weapon? If so, why a KeyBlade and what exactly can this thing do?'_

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a soft gasp and he turned to see a beautiful young woman standing about fifteen feet from him.

She had bright blue eyes like his and short, blue hair that reached her shoulders and framed her heart shaped face. She wore a black and blue, high-collared halter top with two pink, intersecting belts over her chest, and black shorts. She also had an odd silver badge similar to badges that looked to be a Heart above a Cross. On her arms were white bell-sleeves and tan, fingerless gloves. She also wore a small, segmented piece of armor on each of her upper arms and what appeared to be black stockings, or socks, on her legs which reached halfway up her thighs, leaving a small area of bare skin on her upper thighs. Her attire also bore two strips of blue cloth that draped over either side of her hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around her waist and draped in the same manner. Finally, she had pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp hook-like extension on the outer side of each.

He kept looking at her while she had her gaze on his weapon. _'A KeyBlade! But I thought that Ventus, Terra, and I were the only ones? He doesn't look like Sora or Riku either since Terra and I instilled some of our power into them… Who is he?'_

Naruto slowly and painfully rose to his feet, using his KeyBlade as a crutch to support him. "Hey, my name's Naruto," he greeted in hopes of having not stumbled upon an enemy in his weakened state. "May I ask yours?"

The woman was shaken out of her thoughts at his voice and she gave a small, friendly smile. "My name is Aqua, and I'm glad to have run into another Key Bearer in this place."

"Key Bearer? What do you mean?"

Her eyes widened in shock at his confusion. "You mean that you don't know what you're carrying?" she asked while pointing to his weapon.

He raised it up and looked to it in confusion. "You mean this thing? I heard a voice in my head call it a 'KeyBlade' but I still don't really know what the heck it is."

"A KeyBlade is a weapon used to fight off either the Darkness or the Light. Most are used to fight the Darkness, but there are still a few that go against the Light. Do you know what yours fights against?"

Once again, his face had a look of confusion before a voice whispered in his head again. It echoed, " _Rise up with the Light… Fight the Darkness…_ "

"It fights against the Darkness… At least, that's what that voice told me just now…" he answered her unsurely.

To his relief, she smiled brightly at him. "That's good to hear. I'm actually glad that I found someone else in here. I was beginning to think I was stuck here alone…"

"Where is _here_ anyway?"

"This place," she began while waving her arm to their surroundings, "is known as the Realm of Darkness… I came here after I saved my friend from getting stuck here. I took his place and got stuck here in the process. What about you?"

"I…I don't really know… I mean, the last thing I remember was fighting in this war and seeing the Darkness slowly engulf my world. My friend gave me his power and mixed it with mine before I used it to leave my world. Next thing I know, I'm waking up on this beach with this KeyBlade in my hands."

"You were in a war!?" she asked him in shock. "You don't look like you're even twenty! Why were you fighting at such a young age?"

"I was fighting for peace," he said with narrowed eyes as he gazed out to the sea. His tone froze Aqua in place and she listened to him explain. "In my world, we're taught how to fight at young ages and how to protect our homes and precious people. I may be only seventeen right now, but I still know things that most adults from my world don't even know. I know what it's like to fight for what is right…and how to lose those you love…"

Aqua's eyes turned sad at the bitter tone in his voice when he spoke of loss. It still amazed her that someone three years her junior could fight in a war, but then again, Ventus was only fourteen when he fought with her and Terra at the KeyBlade Graveyard against Xehanort and Vanitas. Hearing about a seventeen-year-old old fighting for those he cherishes and for peace wasn't that far-fetched.

"I'm sorry to hear that… I never thought you'd have to go through all of that."

Naruto turned to her and saw the regret in her eyes at her question. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and met her regretful eyes with his own slightly happy ones. "It's alright… I'd have to talk about it eventually and you didn't know. You don't have to apologize, Aqua."

Aqua met his small smile with her own and gave a small nod. "Alright, and if you need to, you could always talk to me about it."

"I appreciate that, Aqua."

She then looked to the unmoving moon on the horizon and sighed sadly. "It looks like we're going to be here a while."

Naruto sighed as well before the two sat on the shore; Naruto groaning slightly as his pain-filled body protested against the movement.

Aqua looked to him in concern and questioned, "Are you going to be okay?"

He clenched his eyes in pain as he finally sat on the ground. "Yea, I'll be fine after some rest. I just have some wounds from my last battle."

"If you're hurt, I can heal you," she offered as she summoned her KeyBlade, Stormfall, in a flash of light.

The guard was circular and somewhat jagged around its edges while the upper half of the guard was black, the center was grey, and the bottom of it was white. The handle was a featureless, grey rod and the shaft of the KeyBlade was thin and navy blue in coloration; except for the tip, which was silver. The base of the shaft also sported two diamond-shaped bumps and the teeth were comprised by a rectangular frame lined with four short, blunt spikes. This frame and the spikes were all navy blue. The teeth also had three silver pieces bent at right angles; two on the inside corners of the frame and one on the inside center of one side. The Keychain links and token resembled water drops in the rain.

"Just hold still and I'll fix you up," she said as she pointed the tip of her KeyBlade at him. " **Cure**!" she cried as a small flash of green light shot from her Key and hit Naruto. The blonde immediately felt his wounds close up and heal at a rapid rate. Five seconds later and his body was back at hundred percent.

He carefully moved various parts of his body and checked for any twinges of pain or any aches. It surprised him that there were none and he was perfectly healthy. "That's amazing… I feel better than ever!" he exclaimed with a smile. His smile turned into his famous fox-like grin as he turned to Aqua. "Thanks for that, Aqua-chan!"

Aqua smiled back at him before what he said rang through her ears. "What does 'chan' mean?"

"Oh, in my world, 'chan' is an honorific used for friends in terms of women. For men, the honorific is 'kun'."

"Y-You see me as a friend? But we just met," she asked in confusion.

"Hey, anyone who would selflessly heal me and speak to me as nice as you have is a friend in my book!" Naruto replied with his grin in place.

Aqua looked to him in slight surprise at how accepting he was before she smiled back. This young man in front of her was different… Not in a bad way, but still not exactly in a way she was used to. Most people she met weren't nearly as accepting as him, but he had this aura about him that just made you want to befriend him.

Her smile still in place, she reached her hand out to him and held it before him. When he looked to it and then her in confusion, she elaborated, "Well then, here's to a new friendship, Naruto."

His grin returned when he grabbed her hand and shook it.

That was the start of their friendship in the Realm of Darkness and they were happy to have someone to be beside in the lonely place. After some time, Naruto asked the KeyBlade Master to teach him how to better wield his own since he had zero experience with weapons other than kunai and shuriken. Since she had never taught anyone before, due to being a new Master, she was obviously nervous about teaching him. However, when she saw the drive in his eyes, she couldn't turn him down.

She started him off with basic stances and forms, to allow him to get a better feel with his weapon. After some time, she then had him move on to more advanced forms, but she found out that her style of "Flowing Combat" wasn't really suited for him. While she "flowed" around the battlefield, he shot through it like a bullet and used deceptive strikes to deal damage. So, she had him work with that and develop a "Trickster" style of combat that made him disorient the enemy with his speed before going in for unexpected strikes. He took to that kind of fighting like a fish to water.

The next thing she had him try was Magic. When she explained how Magic was drawing the power from your KeyBlade and using it in various ways, he told her about how his chakra worked in a similar manner. When he demonstrated with his **Kage Bunshin** (Shadow Clone), she was left speechless at the display. It turned out that teaching him how to summon forth Magical Power was much easier since he was already used to drawing forth and utilizing energy. He even had a specialized element like she had. Where she had favored Ice and Healing Magic, he surprisingly favored Wind and Light Magic. His Light magic mainly came in the same form as Reflect magic, but it was also able to be utilized as a ranged attack. She was amazed at how prodigious he was with her teachings.

The final thing she taught him didn't use the KeyBlade. It was actually using the power of his KeyBlade to form a specialized Armor like she had. When he asked her about it, she pointed to the pieces she had on her and told him of how, when activated, it would cover his entire body for better protection against the Darkness and even let him survive the Doorways between other worlds.

When he asked her to show him hers, she complied and summoned forth her Armor. Her Armor was mostly colored in shades of silver, black, grey, and blue. Notable additions that Naruto saw included a silver breastplate resembling an upside-down crescent moon and a dark-visored helmet. Her helmet bore two prongs on either side, with her silver ones wrapping around the sides and angling diagonally downwards. She also wore a cape that was a dusty-rose color.

It amazed Naruto that she was able to summon forth something like that, but it confused him as to why she didn't use it to escape. Her answer was that the Armor she showed him was much weaker than her original which she used to get her friend Terra out of the Darkness. Once he understood that, they got to work on summoning forth his own Armor.

When they finally succeeded, Naruto stood before her in Armor that was mainly gold, black, and orange in coloration. His helmet, chest plate, and shin guards were gold in color while his arms and legs were covered in black. On his helmet were prongs like Aqua's Armor, but they were styled as fox-like ears and were trimmed with orange. His cape was rust orange, as was his visor.

When he finally succeeded in creating his own Armor, Aqua congratulated him and asked for him to let it recede into a small piece like hers when she wasn't using it. His small piece of the Armor was like Terra's; covering his entire left arm and leaving his hand and fingers bare. The coloring was black with an orange trim and a golden rounded piece that rested on his shoulder. However, Naruto noticed something different with his Armor. It was a mix of his chakra and the energy from his KeyBlade, resulting in a sturdier and self-repairing Armor. This surprised his teacher, but she was still glad that he had some added protection.

It was now what felt like a week after Naruto formed his Armor, due to their inability to determine time in the Realm of Darkness. The duo sat on the shore and gazed at the silvery moon like they had done many times before. It was nice being with one another after so long. They had easily established a strong friendship and even shared stories of their past with one another. Aqua had told him of her times with Terra and Ventus when they were still in training while Naruto told him of his early years as a Genin of Konoha. He had even trusted her enough to tell her of the Kyuubi that resided within him. At first, she was incredibly surprised and skeptical of his claim, but he was able to explain how such a thing was possible and even told her that he suspected that Kurama had become his KeyBlade. When she looked at it and remembered that it was a Nine-Tailed _Fox_ that was sealed within him, she agreed that it was a high possibility that the fox had become Naruto's Key.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Naruto. "I have my Armor now and you told me that a KeyBlade can become a Glider. Are we going to work on that next?"

"I'm not sure if you'll be able to make a Glider if Kurama is your KeyBlade, Naruto," she admitted to him sadly. She hadn't changed much during their time save for her feminine form becoming slightly more pronounced. "We may be stuck here for a while longer."

"That doesn't mean that we can't try!" he said in determination, making her smile. No matter how much he seemed to mature, that drive of his never lessened.

"Alright, we can try and see if it'll work. Although, I still don't think it will…"

 **"Such little faith you have, Key Bearer,"** came a voice that Naruto instantly recognized.

"Kurama, is that you?" he asked excitedly.

 **"Yea, it's me. Down here!"** he called out, making them look to Naruto's KeyBlade and see the fox head grinning at them. **"You didn't think you'd be able to get rid of me** _ **that**_ **easily, now did you?"**

Naruto laughed at that raised the tip of his Key so that the fox could see them better. "It's good to hear your voice again, Kurama."

 **"Yeah… Sorry I took so long to talk to ya, but I was restoring my power. But I guess you can't complain all that much considering the company you've had,"** the fox said with a grin.

The two blushed at the hidden message. "N-No, you got it all wrong! We're just friends, right Aqua?"

The bluenette nodded. "Y-Yea, we're just friends!"

The fox laughed at the duo and their blushing faces. **"Calm down, I was just joking. In all honesty, I am glad that you weren't** _ **completely**_ **alone while you were stuck here. Now that my power is restored, I believe I could get you two out of here and to the nearest world."**

Naruto fist pumped at the new while Aqua had a large smile on her face. In his happiness, the blonde grabbed the bluenette in a hug and twirled her around, making her blush at the action. When he realized what he was doing, he immediately set her down and took a step away from her with his own blush.

 **"Well, now that you two are done hugging, let's get started. Naruto, throw me into the air and I'll take care of the rest."**

The Uzumaki nodded and threw his Key with all of his strength. When it was high enough, it was engulfed in a flash of light that blinded the two Key Bearers. When the light died down, a black and orange hover-bike was parked in front of them. It was big enough to seat two, had nine thrusters in the back, and the hood was in the visage of a large fox head. The two smiled at the ride out of the depressing realm and summoned forth their armor before they got on with Naruto in control.

 **"You two ready?"** asked Kurama from a speaker on the Heads Up Display (HUD) of the bike.

"Ready to go!" Naruto said with a grin hidden by his helmet.

"Let's get out of here!" Aqua exclaimed happily.

The bike jerked slightly before it rose a few inches off the ground. Naruto revved the engine and the bike flew up and out of the Realm of Darkness.

The adventure had begun for the two Key Bearers.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I decided to replace the Devil May Cry elements from this. Don't get me wrong, great series, but it just seemed...out of place. And, keeping with the Disney/Pixar-theme pain17ification set for the worlds Naruto and Aqua go to, this fits.**

* * *

"Speech"

 _'Thoughts'_

 **"Kurama Talking/Techniques"**

(Translations and A.N. Numbers)

[Scene Shift]

Chapter 2: Rough Playtime, part 1

"Gotta admit, this is pretty cool! So can anyone make these just by tossing their keyblade?" Naruto asked as the pair zoomed along the lanes between worlds.

"Nope. It's a secret of the Keyblades you have to learn to unlock. Although each Keyblade Glider is similar in the manner that they are formed, by throwing the Keyblade into the sky, where it transforms into its vehicle form, the gliders have drastically different forms. Terra's Keyblade Glider resembles a bike or speeder, Ventus's vehicle is shaped like a winged waveboard, and mine transforms into a two-part bow-and-platform device. The Keyblade wielders can also use their glider to attack. Another thing is, no matter the key chain attached to the keyblade when the glider is formed, the glider is always formed from the wielder's original keyblade." Aqua explained.

Naruto looked over the black and orange hover bike big enough to seat two, with nine thrusters in the back, and the fox-head hood.

"So...no matter what, Kuruma will always turn into this very sweet ride?" Naruto asked.

The bluenette nodded.

"So...what can you tell me about yourself?" Aqua asked. Then frowned as she felt the male suddenly tense.

"Why are you asking something like that?" Naruto wondered.

Aqua shrugged, "Got time until we reach a world...figured we might as well get to know one another since we'll be watching one another's backs."

Naruto sighed. He **_LOATHED_** facts like that. "You sure you want to know? I'll tell you, but if I do there's one thing you need to know about me first: I don't need or want your pity. It won't do me a damn thing. That's not to say I don't appreciate it, but I've found that you can either piss and moan feeling sorry for yourself _OR_ you can get up and actually do things to improve the situation. That's why I don't accept pity. Besides...having to spend so long in the dark makes it so I can truly appreciate the necessity and beauty of the light."

Aqua outright scowled. She didn't have to have been deemed a keyblade master of the light to know what a warning like THAT meant.

"...Not comfortable with sharing your past." Aqua said. It wasn't a question.

Naruto sighed and slumped in his seat. "Nope. Not to say you couldn't prove you mean it, but...I don't give that out easy."

The woman nodded, a person's past was a touchy thing and not to be given out lightly. "So...how'd your world get...you know...?" Aqua asked, hesitating.

The blond grunted. "The Uchiha. Bunch of psychotic emos...well...Itachi _was_ the lone exception to that, least as far as I'm aware...consider free will a myth, laws to be just empty words, and were nothing but the kind of people who didn't care about anything but their own ambitions, people who let nothing, not even morals stand in their way...I mean, seriously? Take Sasuke for example. He throws his future away, locked himself in the past, and REFUSED think beyond killing what he hated. Last time we saw one another, he even told me, "I'm fighting you out of HATE, pure and simple. I hate you, I hate that your stronger than me, I hate that you , but most of all, I absolutely HATE that you can somehow find happiness and acceptance when all I've ever found is more reasons to hate!". Moron. He was trapped in the past with only his body being all that existed about him in the present, and was why couldn't find happiness. But, kami-sama forbid he be able to forget the past and move forward with his life already. Besides, its not like there was anything left for him to hate. Guy only had his hatred left to live for and nothing to direct it at, it made him insane." Naruto noted with a shake of his head.

"Ugh...don't take this the wrong way Naruto, but these Uchiha people sound like the source of all the Darkness that plagued your world." Aqua told her male counterpart in disgust. From everything she'd ever been taught by Master Eraqus and how they were described, these "Uchiha" people sounded just like the type that the Darkness couldn't help but notice.

 **"Hump...she has no idea how right she actually is about that."** Kurama muttered darkly, thinking of Indra Ōtsutsuki, the forefather and progenitor of the Uchiha clan...twisted, power-mongering little bastard! Indra was so rotten his _existence_ was an insult to his father, the Old Man Six Paths, Hagoromo, as well as Indra's younger brother, Asura, who was everything Indra wasn't.

Where Asura had humility, Indra had arrogance.

Where Asura had compassion, Indra had hatred.

Where Asura had passiveness, Indra had ruthlessness.

And while Asura was born with no talent and thus could not accomplish much on his own, he valued depending on and cooperating with others. With the help of his countless friends and allies, and through sheer hard work and determination, he awakened his own power. As he never lost sight of his principles and the love he had for others, he believed love to be the key to achieving just about anything.

Indra, on the other hand...while it could be argued that his being a prodigy was a good thing seeing as he demonstrated an aptitude towards anything else he applied his mind to, it was due to his prowess that he led a solitary life as he felt no need to depend on others. As he did everything with his own power alone, he believed power and force could achieve anything, even peace, as well as a religiously fanatical adherence in the concept of Social Darwinism, where those deemed "weak" only exist for the benefit of the strong, and (big surprise) as he viewed himself as the "strongest", Indra felt he was allowed to do whatever he wanted with utter immunity. And the Uchiha adopted that mindset down through the ages.

"No fooling there, Aqua-chan, they were so crazy that the clan had to be very nearly wiped out about ten or so years back, leaving only three members left at the time. Sasuke was told his brother killed the clan, he became an avenger and eventually killed him, only to learn that it was someone else who was the cause of his family's death and went to kill him next, but that wasn't enough—he wanted to kill EVERYBODY around him because they were alive. He was that obsessed until the Darkness munched him."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "He thought he was some kind of an Avenger? More like a fool. I admit it would be a tragedy he'd have the right to be furious over, but all he did was become as bad as the one who destroyed his family." the blue-haired swordswoman stated and Naruto nods his head before cracking his neck.

"No kidding...He had a total disregard for non-Uchiha life in general; all he cared about was getting more power." Naruto sighed.

No sooner had he said that, then a too-thick, cold chilling feeling suddenly washed over the two key bearers like something was sapping all warmth from them.

Naruto tensed up and whipped his head around and saw a large winged creature with a pure black body, save for the eyes and fangs which were a bright yellow. It had a hawk's body, but the neck and head were that of a serpent.

"Trouble incoming!" he shouted.

Aqua instantly summoned her her Keyblade, Stormfall, "What kind?" she demanded.

"Sasuke Uchiha...or at least his Heartless." Naruto said as the two wheeled around to face the creature, but as they did, Aqua's eyes widened as the creature of darkness was surrounded by what felt like an unholy purple energy that slowly started to form into something around it.

 _'What… what is this abominable energy?'_ The young woman wondered until a ghastly-looking, dark purple monster samuri warrior of some kind appeared around the Heartless and roared lowly.

It had a helmet that featured a long beak-like nose, two spikes over each eye, a slit stretching across its mouth, three gaps on each of its cheeks and one additional gap on its chin, demonic horns, a malevolent grin, and two sets of arms with six fingers on each of its hands, as well as possessing a pair of wings for flight. It was clad with robes and ornate-looking armor. It was armed with a pair of katana, but its primary weapon, though, seemed to be a bow, manifested on the wrist of its left arm; and from the look of the design, it could also double as a shield if needed.

Before any of them could do anything, Sasuke's Heartless had the giant form an arrow and fired, but in that same instant, Kurama's Glider form glowed gold, but what that was For was lost as an arrow that took a highly genetically modified shinobi utilizing Sage Mode to be able to avoid was launched at the key bearers and they went tumbling through the lane between and towards another world as their visions went black.

[?]

"Kurama!"

That was the first thing Naruto shouted as soon as he awoke, gripping his keyblade, which had reverted back to it's default form. Picking up the blade and feeling a slight buzzing in his head through his connection to the kitsune, Naruto sighed, relieved. His friend was just unconscious. He then looked around and a few feet away from him, Aqua laid crumpled on the ground.

Naruto scrambled over and placed his hands on Aqua's throat and almost passed out again, from relief this time. Her pulse was strong.

Keeping his hands against Aqua's carotid artery, Naruto sent a few **Cure** spells directly into her circulatory system.

She responded almost immediately, her eyes fluttering open and she groaned. "Wu...whuu..what...was that thing?" Aqua asked as Naruto carefully dragged her over to a nearby wall and propped her up against it. Then collapsed against the wall next to her. Sure he healed faster than a normal person, but that didn't mean he was immune to feeling exhausted when his body felt thrashed.

"One of Sasuke's stupidly overpowered moves— he had techniques with Shinto deity names...his family thought their eyes gave them the right to command gods. That damned battle avatar his Heartless just used was called the **Susano'o**...looked different than the last time I saw it, though, more developed...it takes on the form of a tengu. Sort of a bird/humanoid demon spirit often conceived of as the ghosts of the arrogant, and as a result the creatures have become strongly associated with vanity and pride. So much so that the expression "tengu ni naru", which literally means, "becoming a tengu", is still used to describe a conceited person." Naruto groaned. "Seeing as Sasuke's development was more often then not marked by intense feelings of hatred, the saying fits."

"...Why dose none of that not surprise me...? Oooowww..." Aqua groaned as she tried sitting up and rubbing her head and instantly regretted the attempted actions. "And I see that Heartless decided to take that 'Sasuke's-development-was-more-often-then-not-marked-by-intense-feelings-of-hatred' bit and rolled with it." Aqua turned her head, wincing at how she felt. "Where are we, how'd we get here, and why didn't that Heartless kill us?"

Naruto looked down as his weapon-shaped friend. "Kuruma," Naruto said miserably. "He took the fire for us, did something to fool Sasuke's Heartless that we hadn't survived the blast—we wouldn't have woken up if that Heartless hadn't thought it'd finished us off—and got us here while we were unconscious."

Aqua looked alarmed. "You mean he's...?" while she hardly knew the fox, what he'd done had just earned her trusting the nine-tailed creature, and she couldn't bear to loose another comrade to the Darkness. Besides, Kuruma was the core of Naruto's keyblade, if he died...

Naruto shook his head, "He's out of it, but not dead. Still...until he wakes up, might need to get comfortable, wherever we are." he said, dismissing his armor's helmet, but keeping the rest engaged.

Aqua felt relived, even as she copied Naruto's action of keeping her armor, minus the helmet. "He's gonna be ok?" she asked, then smiled, "That's great!"

Naruto nodded, leaning back and looked up, "Yeah...huh?!"

"What's wrong?"Aqua asked.

"Uhh...Aqua-chan? Am I crazy or is this...? I'm wrong, I'd love to be wrong...I'm just seeing things from hitting my head, right?" the blond said, "I can swear those are giant leaves..."

Aqua took a deep breath, she was more used to this than he was...different worlds sometimes required visitors to blend in. But this?

"Ok...two questions: numero uno...where the heck are we? And secondly...why are we smaller?" Naruto had been through some strange things, but this was new, however, to his credit, he was trying to keep it together.

"Naruto! Naruto! Relax, things like this are normal when you're dealing with Keyblades." Aqua said, trying to sound soothing.

At the reassurances of his mentor in being a keyblade-user, the Uzumaki took a deep breath and seemed to relax, "You're right. I'm sorry, I am just a little freaked, that's all. I can get through this."

Aqua frowned thoughtfully, "There's a reason for this...gotta be something specific about this world..."

After resting a bit longer so that it didn't hurt to move, and a few more **Cure** spells passing between them once they felt that well, both Naruto and Aqua were feeling good enough to move and pushed their way out of the hedge they'd been in and found themselves on a sidewalk.

"Uh...Aqua-chan? I know I'm new to this whole keyblade thing, but if we'retrying to find out about this world we're in...maybe we could ask them about that?" Naruto said, pointing.

The more seasoned keyblade wielder look to where he indicated and saw a group of five toys, but what was shocking was that they were moving and talking under their own power as if they were alive.

The one that was apparently the leader was a slightly obese spaceman action figure. On his head, he had fair skin, blue eyes, an outline of a swirl on his chin, a purple headcap and collar, a clear plastic space helmet with purple buttons on the sides that open or close it. His green torso consisted of a light blue sticker that had the words "SPACE RANGER" and a symbol of a ringed planet with a pair of wings, purple straps connected to it, three oval talk buttons - one blue, one green, and one red, a yellow sticker that said "LIGHTYEAR" above a red button. On his back, he had a white jetpack with a purple value and green triangular accents and two black and yellow stickers - one said, "DANGER", and the other said "JET EXHAUST". His white arms had grey circular elbows and matching spheres on the end of his upper arms with black rings on them. His hands had purple lines on his knuckles and fingertips and green squares on the back of each. His right arm had a red button on his upper arm with a yellow and black striped sticker that read "LASER" and a red light on his right wrist. His left arm had a blue, shield-like sicker that resembled an officer's badge with a rocket in the middle of it on his upper arm and a place where a wrist communicator nitch in his arm, though the lid of the wrist communicator was shut. A black bending with a thin green waist. His white spaceman pants had matching collars at the bottom and grey spheres behind his knees and held his white shoes with green toe accents and purple soles.

Next was a plastic potato with black eyes, pink ears, white arms with gloves, a pairs of blue shoes, a red mouth, an orange nose, black eyebrows, a black mustache, and a black bowler hat.

Then there was a pink, plastic piggy bank with a cork in it's belly, black hooves, a coin slot in it's back, and black dots for eyes.

After that came a green lizard with beady eyes, small arms, and large hind legs, and a big mouth full of pointed white teeth, it was mostly green with a white underbelly that extended to the bottom of it's tail.

And finally, a toy dachshund with a plastic front and hindquarters, with a very stretchable metal slinky as his middle, vinyl ears and a green collar.

However, as Naruto was about to go over to them, Aqua grabbed hold of his shoulders and spun him around to look her in the face.

"Naruto! Are you nuts?! Us keyblade users _can't get involved in the affairs of other worlds!_ It's a rule that was made to keep the wicked from each different world from encountering one another and making sure the keyblades' powers weren't abused!" she hissed in an urgent whisper.

"Uh...aren't we, as keyblade users, technically _breaking_ that rule anyways by simply coming to other worlds?" Naruto asked. "Besides, how can we keyblade users actually do our job if we have to stay uninvolved _?_ It's not that I don't understand why that rule's there, butI don't know about you, Aqua-chan, but making it so that the Darkness can't swallow up an entire world and everyone and everything in it seems like being "involved" in that world's affairs if you ask me."

Aqua opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. She'd never thought of that...looking at Naruto, she had to wonder just what Master Eraqus would've thought of her current ally.

She shook her head, both amused and depressed by the idea. Amused because of her late master's reaction to Naruto and his sheer bluntness about things like that, and depressed because her master was dead and she missed him.

"Well...alright, just don't let them know we're from another world is all." she said and the Uzumaki grinned at her.

"Got it, Aqua-chan!" he saluted, then turned to the group of living toys and marched over.

Aqua shook her head, smiling haplessly at Naruto's antics before following him.

"Hell~llo~!" Naruto called out cheerfully, catching the group's attention. The plastic individuals turned to see a pair in armor, one was a girl, the other a guy.

The girl had bright blue eyes and short, blue hair that reached her shoulders and framed her heart shaped face. The girl's armor was mostly colored in shades of silver, black, grey, and blue, and included a silver breastplate resembling an upside-down crescent moon. She also wore a cape that was a dusty-rose color.

The male had nicely tanned skin, marks on his cheeks that resembled three whisker marks on each cheek, eyes as blue as the girl's, and bright yellow hair that was spiky and stuck up in all directions like the spines of a sea urchin. The male's armor was mainly gold, black, and orange in coloration. His, chest plate, and shin guards were gold in color while his arms and legs were covered in black and his cape was rust orange.

They were both holding some kind of a weapon...or at least what sure looked like ones. Some kind of weird swords.

The guy's had a handle that was a dark red, almost like blood, and had a guard that surrounded his hand. The guard was a bright orange and had a silver chain on the bottom of it that had a keychain at the end. The keychain was in the design of a red swirl with a black outline on it. From the top of the handle, a black blade stretched for about three feet and a black fox head protruded from the side at the top of the blade. The fox head's eyes had red sclera, a bright orange iris, and a black slit pupil.

The girl's was different than his, the guard was circular and somewhat jagged around its edges while the upper half of the guard was black, the center was grey, and the bottom of it was white. The handle was a featureless, grey rod and the shaft was thin and navy blue in coloration; except for the tip, which was silver. The base of the shaft also sported two diamond-shaped bumps and the teeth were comprised by a rectangular frame lined with four short, blunt spikes. This frame and the spikes were all navy blue. The teeth also had three silver pieces bent at right angles; two on the inside corners of the frame and one on the inside center of one side. The key chain links and token resembled water drops in the rain.

"Who're they?" the potato asked.

"Must be some kind of action figures." the piggy bank said.

The spaceman walked up to the pair, noting they were as tall as he was with his dome retracted.

"Greetings." the toy said, "may we ask who you are and why your here without your owner?"

"Sorry...nasty blows to the head and we woke up in a hedge just now." Aqua said.

"Great...a pair of amnesiacs! " the potato said, causing the two to tighten their grips on their blades slightly.

The spaceman shot the spud a look of disapproval at that, "At ease, fellas. It's not easy when you first realize, or in these twos' case, relearn the rules when you're a toy." the spaceman said, recalling his own nasty shock of reality that proved he was a child's plaything...

[flashback]

 _He stared up at the yellowing popcorn ceiling of Sid's house, laying discarded at the bottom of the wooden staircase. His arm... His arm... laid beside him. He looked at it in disbelief._

 _Is this all that I am? He wondered. He felt like crying, but didn't think he would have any tears. Am I just plastic and batteries? Made for children to throw and abuse to their delight? Why?! He turned his head back to the ceiling. I thought... I thought I was more. I was Buzz Lightyear. Was that just an illusion? Some fluke in my wiring? Or do all toys start out believing they are... real? Buzz didn't know. There were too many questions, and no one is there to answer them._

 _Suddenly Hannah came down the hall, hollering out to her mother in her search for her Sally doll. But she stepped on Buzz's wing, and was distracted by his shiny plastic and pulsating lights._

 _Her mother's voice came and asked what her daughter had been asking a moment later._

 _"Never mind!" She called to her mother, picking the fallen Ranger toy and his arm off of the floor. She smiled at Buzz and he smiled back, for he has no other choice.._.

[end flashback]

The space toy shivered...he hated that memory!

"So anyways...this is Aqua, I'm Naruto. Who are you all?" Naruto asked, bringing him out of his thoughts, something for which he was grateful.

"Right, right...I'm Buzz, that's Mr. Potato Head, this is Hamm, that's Rex, and Slink." Buzz said, pointing to himself and the rest of his group as he introduced them.

"So...if I can ask...what are you all doing out here?" Naruto asked.

Buzz's face hardened. "Rescue mission...a friend of ours was kidnapped and we're going to bring him home."

At that, Naruto and Aqua shared a look, then turned to the plastic astronaut. "Well...want any more help?" the last Konoha shinobi said.

Buzz looked shocked, "Wha...but...ok, don't take this the wrong way, because the offer's appreciated, but, why would you ask that? You don't even know Woody!"

"Know he's your friend and he's in trouble, that's all we need." Aqua said.

Buzz looked at the pair in the eyes, then smirked and shook his head. These two really were action figures...or more accurately, figures _of_ action! Their resolve was almost a tangible thing, and he could tell just by looking that they wouldn't accept it if they were told "no". Weather they were just going through the same phase he had when he thought he was an actual Space Ranger or not, it didn't matter to them, they had decided.

And from his "Space Ranger" days, Buzz understood and respected where these two were coming from: How much or how well did you actually have to know someone to help them when they needed it beyond the facts that they needed help and you could give it to them?

He held out his hands and the pair shook them.

"Welcome aboard." the toy grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: To those whom have reviewed and shared their feedback of the story, I would like to thank you all.** **Also, please be sure to read, review, and support this story, as well as ones made by my friend pain17ification, the original author of this story who allowed me to continue it.**

* * *

"Speech"

 _'Thoughts'_

 **"Kurama Talking/Techniques"**

(Translations and A.N. Numbers)

[Scene Shift]

Chapter 3: Rough Playtime, part 2

Naruto, Aqua, Buzz, Potato Head, Hamm, Rex, and Slink dived into a bush to avoid being spotted as the sun started to rise and people would be waking up to go about their day.

"So...why'd this chicken man Al snatch your buddy?" Naruto asked as the group hid.

Buzz growled, "Wish I knew...but we need to pick up the pace!"

"Buzz...that whole "freeze" rule isn't something we can do something about. I get why that frustrates you, but no need to be reckless."Aqua said.

Buzz glared, but sighed, it was true, the group needed to avoid being spotted by humans...otherwise, they could easily be snatched up and claimed by another kid or tossed out in someone's trash can or something. Then they'd never be able to save Woody and get back to Andy's house before he returned from Cowboy Camp.

Naruto hummed, looking over the post-it note that served as the map to their destination, not a very good one, but it showed their destination's location at least. Then he nodded to himself and walked off. "Be back, guys...need to try and see if something could work that'd be able to help us get there sooner real quick." he said.

Aqua frowned at that. What was he up to? Deciding to follow her new friend, she found him with his back turned to her, hidden from view by a couple trash cans.

" **Kumenjū Sowaka!** (nine masked beasts Svāhā)" he said as if announcing a command.

"What're you doing?"

"Gah!" Naruto cried, leaping into the air, startled. Then whipped around and saw who was addressing him.

"Oh...Aqua-chan. Sorry, you startled me."

Aqua crossed her arms under her breasts, eyeing Naruto curiously. "What're you up to, Naruto?"

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well...once, I was sent to a sort of distorted mirror dimension-version of my world and I faced an alternate version of myself there, I...he...er...that other me...man trying to figure out how to put that was confusing for a second...anyway, the other me could create entities through the use of chakra, called them the 'Nine Masked Beasts', or 'Kumenjū'. One of them, Suzaku, was a bird, a big one too."

"So you figured if you could do the same thing, you could conjure this Suzaku bird and have us all ride it straight to Al's Toy Barn." Aqua said, realizing what he planned.

Naruto looked down and heaved a sigh, "Yeah...that was the idea, but I just can't get it to work! And I don't know why! I'm doing everything that other me did!" he growled, frustration evident.

Aqua exhaled deeply through her nose and shook her head haplessly with a small, amused smirk. It wasn't a bad idea, far from it, if it worked. "I get it, Naruto, but you've never tried that yourself before. Idea's good and the intentions are easy to understand, but no need to be so hard on yourself for it."

Keeping his eyes fixated on his feet, the blond nodded, "I know...I just...I don't want to let anyone down...not again..." Naruto said, starting to shake.

Aqua winced at that. Let anyone down again...Naruto didn't have anything left since the Darkness swallowed his world. He was terrified of failing anyone else that was counting on him because of that. While fear was one of the emotions the Darkness thrived off of, she would be lying if she said it didn't make sense as to why that was. It was obvious to anyone that knew what to look for that the people he cared about were his life and protecting them was his purpose.

And the Darkness had stolen it all from him.

Small mystery why he didn't want to let anyone down.

As she was about to comment on that, a small group of of the basic, imp-like Heartless appeared in front of them. What was surprising was they were the same size as the two keyblade-users themselves were.

"Great...Heartless." Aqua muttered, arming herself with Stormfall. To her surprise, Naruto was grinning drew Kurama, quickly giving a metal apology to his friend and likewise hoping that this didn't worsen the keyblade/biju's condition from Sasuke's Heartless.

"Hello misplaced aggression!" the blond whooped.

Ooooh-kayyyy...that cleared up whatever questions she had about why her fellow Keyblade bearer of the Light was glad to see Heartless.

"Aqua-chan...don't get involved unless it looks like I need help...I need to vent, and this'll be a good way to showcase that fighting style I came up with...needed to test out my brainchild, anyway!" Naruto grinned.

Once he got acknowledgment that Aqua would stay out of the fight, the Uzumaki rushed forward with a grin. Key in hand, he rushed to the first Shadow and disposed of it with a rushing slash that cut right through it. He ignored it fading away and turned his focus to the next target. He kicked off the ground and performed a perfect flip before slamming his weapon downward with the flat of the blade, mimicking Tenten whenever she wielded one of her kanabo clubs.

The strike crushed the second Shadow, resulting in it _exploding_ into a dark mist. His battle mentality made him continue his assault and he tossed the keyblade upward so that he could grab the chain. With it in hand, he channeled chakra into it and swung the whole weapon like a bladed whip. Due to the chakra coursing through it, seeing as Kurama's origin as raw energy incarnated and granted sentience, as well as Asuma Sarutobi's teaching him chakra channeling manipulation, and because of what his mother was famous for by creating chains of solidified energy from her body, the chain stretched outward and allowed the blade to strike a Shadow about twenty (tiny due to his shrunken size) feet away from his position.

With three Shadows down, he pulled the blade back to him and regained his grip on the handle while retaining the length of the extended chain. This time he used the chain itself to strike the next Heartless, making it so that the links wrapped around the Shadow's neck. When it tightened enough, he swung it again and forced the Heartless to fly with it. The helpless Shadow was forced to become nothing more than a makeshift "weight" to the flail Naruto had his keyblade mimic.

The Heartless crashed into another and both dispersed while the final Shadow lept at Naruto, intent on raking its claws into the blonde Uzumaki. As it flew through the air, Naruto retracted the chain to its default length and shifted the grip on his handle into a reverse so that the guard was directly in front of his knuckles. As soon as the Shadow was close enough, he roared out a battle cry and punched forward. With the guard acting like a brass knuckle, the Shadow was struck hard enough to send it flying back and crash into a tall (to the tiny Key Bearers) patch of grass. The force ripped out a couple of blades before the Heartless finally dispersed, leaving Naruto standing alone with Aqua.

"Phew," he sighed out. "I really needed that..."

Aqua stared at what he'd done. What in the?! Using the keyblade as much to bludgeon like a club and the chain as a whip as well as cutting and slashing with it like a traditional sword. Not to mention he even used the hand guard like brass knuckles...she'd never seen anything like it!

Her friend walked over to her as she gawked at him. "Well, Aqua-chan? As a keyblade master...what'cha think of my creation?"

"Wha...how did...ok...what was all that?! I know I wanted you to come up with a tricky style to fight with...but that?! WHAT inspired you to make a style like that?!"

Naruto grinned, "The fact that the actual _blade_ isn't the only part of a sword, and unless you know how to utilize all of it, you can't say you're a sword master." he said.

Aqua frowned in concentration, "Hold on...I wanna burn that saying into my memory..."

Naruto smiled, amused that Aqua took what he'd just said seriously. It didn't surprise him, she was a sword-user herself. But dang! What he'd just told Aqua sounded like something he could easily picture as being something Tenten would've said!

Naruto slightly deflated at that, thinking of that made him miss his world and the people he cared about. The memories were bittersweet, he'd never stop caring for his precious people, but the fact that they were gone forever was agony!

Aqua, noting his mood shift, winced. Thoughts of home...she could see it in his face. She could tell that Naruto had learned early that if you cracked jokes and pretended you were alright, you usually could try fooling yourself that things weren't so bad. Plus, humor was a good way to hide the pain. But for now the best he could do was to keep moving. Don't get bogged down. Don't think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when he didn't feel like it. _Especially_ when he didn't feel like it.

But no false smile would keep his mind off the loss of his world. Best give him something else to think about right now.

"Surprised you could move like that in your armor, Naruto." the bluenette said, catching his attention. His eyes showed he understood what she was doing and was grateful for the distraction from his painful thoughts.

In a flash, he hit his armor's activation/deactivation function of the armor's left pauldron and in a flash of light, he was in the attire that proved he'd only just barley escaped that war he was in before his world was devoured, it was so damaged. Black sandals that left his toes and heels exposed and worn soles led up to tattered orange pants, an orange and black jacket riddled in cuts and tears, a slashed up black shirt with a mesh armor shirt under that, seen through the damages."Well...my normal clothes are pretty thrashed." Naruto said, summoning his armor over himself again.

Aqua frowned at that. True...she'd almost forgotten, and she made a note to need a way to fix that for him. But at least Naruto was himself again right now. Then she noticed something and narrowed her eyes at what had just spawned.

One last Shadow.

Scowling when he followed Aqua's gaze, Naruto cast a wind spell, which swept the Heartless off it's feet and sent it tumbling. When it stopped, disorientated, the last shinobi walked over to the creature of living darkness

"And thus...the only thing beyond tree-walking Kakashi ever showed me..." Naruto said. Good thing Kurama was comatose right now!

Naruto then quickly extended his arms, shoving the keyblade in the area where, with a normal person, their butt hole would be.

The poor Heartless screeched like a boiling lobster as it was propelled up and forward by the sheer force of the "technique" of a sword being forced up it's backside and flew like it was shot from a cannon and flew until it smashed into a shaded bench a few feet away and faded into nothing at the impact.

"You...you just...goosed a Heartless..." Aqua said, palming her crimson face and shaking her head. "Whoever that Kakashi guy was, he had better be dead!" Seriously?! Even though she could see that it would really hurt a human enemy..."What kind of person teaches others that giving someone a bare-handed colonoscopy or prostate exam like that is a real technique and-or an example of acceptable tactics?!"

"A guy who reads porn in front of children...in public... before sticking his fingers up their butt." Naruto muttered, rubbing and scratching at his butt with a shudder.

Aqua stared at her friend, wide-eyed and slack-jawed in sheer horrified shock.

"Oh no, he di'int!"

"Oh yes, he di'id, Aqua-chan! After that, it hurt to use the bathroom for three days! It was horrible!" the blond shuddered.

Aqua growled. Ok...after leaving this world and getting back to her normal size, she was finding the nearest patch of darkness and _forcing_ it to spit up this Kakashi guy, heart included so she'd have something to strike terror into, and kicking his ass! NOBODY got away with treating people she cared about like that!

Besides, as a woman, the idea of a perv and a pedo like that made her blood boil like lava flow! It had to die, and by her hand, for her to have any closure! The Darkness ripping his beating heart from his still-living body and devouring it whole was too merciful!

She looked at where that final Heartless had met it's death, shocked that, given how her former mentor, Eraqus, had at least partially ingrained his open aversion to darkness and his beliefs that it must be destroyed at all costs into his apprentices, she grieved that Heartless for it's method of demise, before she noticed what it had struck actually was.

"Is that a bus stop?" Aqua said, brightening.

"'Bus stop'?" Naruto repeated confused. The fact that chakra allowed for quantum-defiant actions had stunted most technological areas in his world, after all, and wasting time, effort, and resources on unnecessary advancement just to say "look-what-I-did" was pointless, annoying, and ugly.

"Public transit," Aqua clarified, and Naruto's eyes lit up. Transportation?! Given how they had to get to Al's Toy Barn to rescue Woody, that was great! Grinning, the keyblade bearers hurried back to the others and the news was very well received, the toys and two keyblade users rushed over to it.

Got there just in time, too. The doors had just closed after the last person and, apparently, this one was a little ahead of schedule since it just sat there waiting, something the group took advantage of.

"Get under it and hold onto the bottom!" Aqua instructed.

"But I won't be able to hold on! My arms are too short!" Rex cried.

"I've got a way to handle that! Just do it and wait for when we get close to Al's place!" Naruto said as the group did as the two reduced humans instructed, Naruto having to help haul Rex up to the underside of their ride before spreading out his chakra to magnetize seven individuals at once on his own wasn't easy, especially with the smell of exhaust and the way this metal monstrosity rumbled and vibrated, to make matters worse, there was Rex's uneven body type, Potato head's detachable parts, and Slink's to worry about. As he did that, Aqua aimed a **Confusion** at the bus driver to make him think of a detour that would only slightly delay the route while still taking them as close as possible as this particular bus could to Al's Toy Barn. Dishonest? She felt that way, but they did have a job to do. A minute later, the bus started to move and the group was off.

After about ten stops, the bus halted and announced they were as close to Al's Toy Barn as the route he was on would allow and at that, the toys and key bearers let go and Naruto kept the chakra flow to the group going and put it to another use before the seven of them made their way onto the sidewalk.

To anyone walking by, it was just a few discarded wads of paper that must have been blown up onto the sidewalk by the slipstream of traffic. Nothing noticeable or worth caring about to bother with. Even when they moved, people assumed it was merely the wind.

Heading over to another bush, the "scraps of paper" went into it before there were plums of thick white smoke and where the papers had been were the Woody Rescue Group.

Buzz looked at himself, "How did you do that?"

Naruto smiled a bit tiredly after the group **henge** (transformation) and the way the group rode the bus this far, "Trade secret, Space Case. And as long as it's useful, who cares?" he said.

Aqua looked over at him, "Naruto...you look ready to drop."

"I can keep going..." Naruto insisted. Despite this, his body shook and he had to use Kurama as a makeshift cane to support himself until his knees gave out, but before he hit his head, Buzz grabbed him and pulled him up, "ok...so I'm a _tiny_ bit tired," he relented with a sigh, "still...we've still got a job to do. I can rest after." he said stubbornly.

Aqua shook her head. He was a trooper, no doubting that, but even Naruto had to have a limit.

Buzz looked at the Uzumaki with respect in his gaze. This guy was just not going to let them fail to see their friend returned back home safely with them, no matter how far he pushed himself past the breaking point.

Still... "Get some rest." he said.

"Is that an order, Bubble Brain?" Naruto said, narrowing his eyes.

"Consider it friendly advice from a comrade you're helping." the space toy sighed. "Honestly, I can't stress enough how grateful I am that you're helping us, but no need to bleed your batteries dry."

"Fine." Naruto grumbled, and Aqua smiled at that.

"In that case, head there...it'd be dark enough to where the rules about us being alive won't matter too much." Potato Head said, pointing to a movie theater of all things.

The female of the group walked over and relieved the living plaything of the blond, "Fine...I'll get him there." Aqua sighed and, at his insisting and promising to explain later, carried Naruto on her shoulder like she would the corpse of a deer, "If we take too long, go on ahead. We've got ways to catch up." Aqua reassured, turning to Buzz.

Buzz frowned, but nodded. They'd made good time thanks to the bus and whatever Naruto and Aqua had done. But they couldn't take chances.

[Theater]

"So...why're we here?" Aqua asked as they slipped into a darkened room after the last usher had walked out of it and set him down, propped up against one of the seat legs. Getting in had required another joint **henge** on Naruto's part, so he was even more tired.

"We're not made of plastic, Aqua-chan." Naruto said, making her eyes widen in realization. Then she looked at him flatly. "Right...food and basic necessities."

"Think of it as foraging." Naruto said.

Aqua grumbled, but she saw his point. Unlike Buzz and the toys with him, they needed things like food and rest. "Fine...but why'd you insist on having me carry you over my shoulders the way you did?"

"If I did it piggy-back, my hands could've touched where they shouldn't with how tired and slumped I was." Naruto admitted freely.

Aqua blushed as she realized his point. So...he had insisted on that for the sake of being decent? She was glad for that.

Naruto picked up one of the ticket stubs on the floor and looked at it, "'Disney's Star Wars Original Trilogy Marathon'?" he read, looking to Aqua, who shrugged, then paled. A trilogy marathon?! This was bad!

The same thought seemed to have struck Naruto, but as he got to his feet, the door opened and people entered, filling the seats.

Crap! It was time for the movies' showing!

"So why's this trilogy marathon thing even happening?" someone asked above them.

"Hear Disney did this as a sort of homage thing since they bought out Lucasarts." they heard one of the patrons say above them.

Naruto and Aqua winced as the theater door shut and the room's lights dimmed. Looked like they were stuck here for now.

Hours later, once the films had run their course and everyone left, Naruto and Aqua hurried out after the last person, thankfully getting out. They'd spent a good deal of time eating things like dropped popcorn, trying to ignore the indignity of acting like mice or rats, but still, the movies hadn't been too bad.

Now they had more important issues to take care of, having to catch up to Buzz and the others, as by now, they must have left to continue their trek to the Toy Barn.

As they got out of the theater, however, they crashed into something and fell on their backs, paling as they saw it was a kid's leg. A girl's to be exact. She had dark brown hair, a purple shirt, light green shorts, and white shoes.

Just by looking, the two key bearers could tell she had a sweet, imaginative, and cute personality.

The pair froze in place as the girl looked down and her eyes widened before picking the two shrunken key-bearers off of the ground and she smiled.

"Hello. I'm Hannah Phillips." the girl said, then slipped off a backpack she was wearing and set it down. Unzipping it and depositing Naruto and Aqua inside before closing it and hoisting it back up over her shoulders.

Naruto and Aqua shared a quick, panicked glance at this development.

They were busted!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: To those whom have reviewed and shared their feedback of the story, thank you and continue to keep up the reviews, they keep me inspired to continue the story.**

 **That said, enjoy the humor of this chapter before the action stuff starts up in the next one.**

 **Also, a VERY big thanks from me personally going out to "gamelover41592" for helping me brainstorm this chapter!**

* * *

"Speech"

 _'Thoughts'_

 **"Kurama Talking/Techniques"**

(Translations and A.N. Numbers)

[Scene Shift]

Chapter 4: Rough Playtime, part 3

Hannah and her mother got into the car and Hannah set her backpack down in the backseat but forgot to buckle it and as the car took off, the bag fell forward and so did Naruto and Aqua, the car kept swerving and Aqua and Naruto bounced all around inside the backpack...and unfortunately, they weren't all that was in there...the school supplies of their captress were there to, and they did nothing to make the ride enjoyable for the two diminutive Key-bearers.

"Ow!" Naruto groaned as he slammed into a book.

"Ouch!" Aqua yelped as she landed butt-first on the sharpened end of a pencil.

This went on for a while and boy was it a nightmare.

"I HATE BEING TOY-SIZED!" shouted Naruto.

Then it finally stopped and both Naruto and Aqua stood up, relieved. But then, Hannah picked up her backpack and one of her school books hit Naruto on the back of the head and he fell forward, his head hitting something in front of him that was somehow both soft yet hard, and at the same time, he felt his lips touch something soft and warm.

He groaned, and opened his eyes to see he was on top of Aqua, and those soft, warm things were her lips!

Inadvertently or not, they were kissing!

Their eyes widened in shock they remained like that, frozen and shocked stupid, so much they did not even notice that Hannah had taken them out of the backpack until she pulled out some dresses and a suit

 _'Oh hell!'_ thought Naruto. His first instinct was to get up, grab Aqua, and bolt like light speed, but as much as he wanted to, he couldn't...that stupid freeze rule making it so he had to stay put or who could tell how Hannah's reaction would go.

Naruto and Aqua got a view of their surroundings as the girl got ready to play with them, Hannah was a girly-girl the way the stereotypes say. Everything in her room was pink, white, or lavender, and if it could have hearts, flowers, or butterflies carved into/stamped on it, it did.

Hannah smiled as she took off the pieces of armor the two were covered in, but frowned thoughtfully at seeing the two had ordinary-looking clothes on under it...although the boy doll's outfit was very battered up. What had this poor plaything gone through to get in this state?

Giving them each a light kiss on the head, Hannah set the girl down and then started removing the damaged attire from the boy doll until all that were left on him were a pair of dark green boxers, making Naruto blush so many shades of red he was sure he shouldn't have blood flowing to his brain or heart! Thankfully, those were left alone and Naruto soon found himself being stuffed into a grey undershirt then a men's white two button suit with a notch lapel, and side vents, as well as non-pleated white dress pants with slanted side pockets. After that came black dress shoes and a black bow tie, as well as a blue carnation in his lapel.

Hannah smiled, holding Naruto up and examining him before nodding in satisfaction and setting him down and taking up Aqua put her in a cyan gown that had long, powder-blue sleeves with wide openings at the bottom, which were topped with silver frills, along with a pearl necklace that a silver brooch was attached to. At least Aqua had been allowed to keep her usual clothes under the outfit she now wore, since, unlike Naruto's, hers hadn't been practically tatters that needed replacing.

Picking up Naruto again as she held Aqua in her other hand, Hannah smiled, happy with the results and hugged them both before setting them on her bed and wen over to her toy chest and pulled out some toy furniture. Namely a white round table and a few chairs and a plastic tea set.

Hannah then picked them up and sat them at the table with a pair of her dolls and started playing a game of tea party with them.

"Would like some tea, Mr. Whiskers?" asked Hannah, smiling as she pretended to fill Naruto's cup.

Naruto stayed perfectly still, but was really sweating and twitching at the humiliation of being played with like a toy...which he was right at the moment. Call him obsessive-compulsive and ADHD or just simply naturally hyper, but sitting still was NOT his strong suite!

"Oh, its so nice you and your wife decided to join us." said Hannah.

At that, Aqua felt her cheeks go from zero to atomic red instantly, recalling what happened in the girl's backpack and felt glad Hannah wasn't focused on her at the moment, while Naruto was now insanely close to breaking when Hannah's mom called her. Hannah left the room after polity excusing herself.

"FINALLY!" shouted Naruto as he stood up.

"I know, right!" said Aqua while getting her blush under control as she got up as well.

"We've got to get out of here!" said Naruto.

Aqua turned to Hannah's other toys, who were both for some reason, headless.

"Can you two please help us escape? We were actually in the middle of something really important before she snatched us up and brought us here."

At that the dolls stood and fumbled about, trying to see without eyes. They felt everything with their delicate hands, but they apparently knew the room by heart (did toys have hearts, or just batteries?) and started feeling around until one found a child's mini-radio cassette player while the other pulled out a tape and set it in before starting it and fast-forwarding until a part of whatever song was playing.

"-There's no escape but then, who would wanna leave? It's a fantasticle paradise. An-" after that, the dolls stopped the music.

How the dolls did all that without heads, the two Key-bearers didn't know, but chalked it up to practice.

More importantly, the answer to the question was obviously a "no", the two playthings couldn't help them get out.

" 'Fantastical paradise', my butt!...Okay you know what?" said Naruto "I'm just going to use the Keyblade to open the door and we're getting out of here!"

"But Kurama hasn't woken up yet! You might be able to still do things like cast spells on your own under your own power, Naruto, but any abilities pertaining to the Keyblades themselves like the opening and closing of doors and your Glider, you might not be able to do!" Aqua pointed out.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained...one way to see if that's true, Aqua-chan..." he said.

Just as Naruto aimed his keyblade at the door, it opened as Hannah came rushing in looking around angrily for some reason.

"Sid, I thought you...got...over...this?" She said as slowly as she looked down and saw Naruto and Aqua looking back at her and they looked back.

She had come in expecting her older brother to have returned to his old, toys-saw-as-the- devil ways, but now she could not believe what she was seeing.

Naruto rushed over to his ruined clothes and snatched up his ninja supplies before throwing a series of small spheres wrapped in paper with the kanji for 'light' on them as hard and high as he could towards the colossal girl's face and they erupted in blinding white flashes.

Hannah was suddenly rendered unable to see as the flash bombs went off, so she did what anyone else would do when unexpectedly blinded...she screamed, stumbling and rubbing her eyes as she tried to regain her sight.

"RUUUUNNN!" shouted Naruto.

Naruto and Aqua quickly ran past Hannah (Aqua having some trouble due to the dress), but she rubbed the last of the pain from her eyes and she turned around and ran after them. They ran for the stairs. Naruto took Aqua's hand and they jumped on the railing and rail grind down and when they reached the bottom they shot off and headed straight into the kitchen, where they saw another normal-sized kid talking on the phone.

"Thank you, Dr. Lasseter!" said Sid. "These sessions have really been helping me. Yes thanks don't worry, I'll call you if I ever suffer a relapse."

Sid hung up the phone and turned around just in time to see Naruto and Aqua zoom past him through the air and out the door. He heard footsteps on the stairs and turned to see Hannah come running down.

"Sid, did you see which direction my toys ran off to?" asked Hannah.

Sid pointed out the door and Hannah thanked him before she ran in that direction. Sid turned around and picked up the phone and called Dr. Lasseter...again.

"Uh...Doc John Lasseter...I don't know how, but it happened again!" said Sid, "also I think it's contiguous, Hannah saw the same thing! Can you see us both tomorrow at Two?"

Naruto and Aqua landed on the ground and started to dash for the fence.

"We have to hurry!" said Aqua.

"Don't worry," said Naruto. "Nothing short of a giant dog can stop us!"

Just as they were about to make it to the fence, a giant white dog with a black spot on one of its eyes lept in front of them and tried to bite them. Luckily with Naruto's ninja speed he was able to get them out of the way as the dog lunged, snapping at them.

"...Murphy's law, how I hate you so...!" Naruto hissed.

"You were saying?!" said Aqua with a deadpan as she kept running.

"Sorry!" Naruto cried as he pointed his Keyblade at the dog and used **Stopga,** an advanced-class magic spell that utilized the power of time and temporarily froze targets with it.

He was glad Aqua had taught him that, otherwise, he would've had to do something crazy like form an army with the **Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique) and go with a "hit-em-high-hit-em-low" strategy using the clones that struck from above preforming the **Rasen Chō Tarengan** (Ultra-Many Spiralling Serial Spheres) technique Naruto used against Kurama when he and the fox had fought one another in Kaminari no Kuni, while the clones on the ground used the light-element attack, **Salvation** , but using an Ultimate-class, light-element attack and a Rasengan mass bombardment like that was EASILY overkill, and the dog (the breed of which he recognized as a bull terrier thanks to all the times he hug out with Kiba, man...even for someone that loved running his mouth off as much as that guy did, he just both could not and would not know how to shut up if you got him started on the topic of dogs!) would be killed by something like that!

Naruto was a lot of thing, but cruel and abusive to animals wasn't one of them. Sure there was the fights with Kurama and the other bijū, but those guys, in spite of being called "beasts" were more than just animals. And in the fight with Kiba, not only had it been the _Inuzuka_ who punched Akamaru, but before the fight had started, Naruto had told Kiba to keep Akamaru out of the fight, but he didn't listen.

"Ha!" said Naruto as the pair reached the fence and started trying to squuze through. "We're finally safe!"

Just then a pair of hands caught them with a shout of "Gotcha!"

Slapping a hand to his face in irritation as well as cursing himself for needing to learn to keep his mouth shut, Naruto opened his eyes to see that he and Aqua had been caught by Hannah and she was now running trying to keep Skud away from them as the spell Naruto had used wore off, she made it to the door and closed it and thud hit the door.

"Stupid dog!" said Hannah as she walked through the house, Naruto and Aqua in both of her hands.

"Now things will be even more fun," Hannah beamed as she held them up in front of her face.

"Well we tried," Aqua sighed.

"Aw, man." groaned Naruto.

Hannah carried them back up to her room, kicking it closed behind her, then went to her toy chest and removed doll's cradle. She laid the two of them down in it and pulled the blanket up to their chins, and tucked them in. Making sure it was taunt enough to where they couldn't move.

"You're both adorable—especially as a couple! Just lie back and relax, you'll both stay mine and I'm gonna hug you and kiss you and love you forever!"

"Ok...you caught us." Aqua sighed, feeling defeated and humiliated. Seriously? What kind of Keybade Master was she?! She could handle Heartless, Unversed, Vanitas _,_ and even shattered the X-keyblade with her default one, Rainfell, but she couldn't escape a young girl that was using her as a plaything?! That was just completely embarrassing! "I'm Aqua, and this is Naruto. And...as you can see...we're alive." she said with a wince.

"And?" Hannah asked simply.

"Wait a minute—wait do you mean by "and"? It's like you're waiting for us to get to the point!" Naruto said.

Aqua's eyes widened and Hannah smiled, then shrugged. "My brother use to blown up, smash, or rip apart toys...like the ones you met, Marie Antoinette and her little sister, then there was this Buzz Lightyear that had it's arm removed, called him Mrs. Nesbit when I found and played with him. Long story short, the way Sid used to treat toys upset me, so they showed they were alive when they couldn't stand it any more and tried comforting me. Known since then and kept it a secret. Even tried helping them from time to time. Even tried rescuing some of Sid's toys when he wasn't around. He had to have four locks on the inside of his door as a way to keep me out of his room."

The two stared at Hannah. She...she knew?! She knew and kept it secret?! They both sighed relieved. Now it made sense why she wasn't shocked when she caught them at the movie theater. Not only that, but she kept and cared about the toys her brother mutilated rather than replace them the way anyone else would with broken toys.

It also made their job easier. But right now, they were too shocked to register that.

Hannah giggled at the duo's expressions, "Now then...time to play."

"We don't have time to play!" Naruto said.

Hannah's jaw dropped. "Wh...wh...what!? But...you're my toys now..."

"Sorry, sometimes he has no control over what he says. What Naruto _means_ is that some obsessive toy collector named Al McWhiggen, the owner of Al's Toy Barn, toy-napped a friend of ours and we need to get them back." Aqua clarified.

Hannah frowned at that. "Al's Toy Barn in the Tri-County Area _,_ 1001 West Cutting Boulevard? Well...alright. Tell you what: play _one_ quick game with me and I'll even take you two there on my bike so you can help your friend, ok?"

Naruto and Aqua shared a glance. That...actually wasn't a bad deal. And if they were going to help rescue Woody, they'd need to take it anyways.

"Oh! I know!" the young girl cried suddenly, then loomed over the two was a megawatt smile on her face, "How about a nice game of ..."wedding"...and guess who gets to be the bride and groom!"

Naruto and Aqua both flushed. Oh...they didn't even need to guess! Hannah carried them over to a play set and put them inside.

"Now...time to get you two married!" the girl said in delight.

The result to her saying that was Naruto and Aqua both sporting matching red blushes and faces filled with embarrassment.

"Wha...wha...I...and Aqua...we can't get married!" Naruto said.

Aqua looked to Naruto sharply. "What's THAT supposed to mean?!" she demanded, feeling offended.

"I… you…no I don't…I mean…I'm just saying…that IF..." Naruto sputtered at seeing Aqua's suddenly hostile look, trying to explain himself.

Hannah bit her bottom lip, trying not to crack up. These two new toys of hers were absolutely hilarious!

Now...how to deal with the "nervous kiss"?

Hannah thought about it and came to simple yet amusing idea as seeing how close the two were standing to one another.

 _'Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence of these witnesses, to join Naruto and Aqua in matrimony commended to be honorable among all; and therefore is not to be entered into lightly but reverently, passionately, lovingly and solemnly. Into this - these two persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together - let them speak now or forever hold their peace.'_ Hannah thought with a growing smile. She moved the index fingers of each of her hands behind Naruto and Aqua's heads, feeling happy for the two and glad that they were too busy trying to explain things to one another while being so flustered.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss!" Hannah said aloud, startling the two.

"SAY WHAAA...HHHmmmmmhmmm!"

Their surprised shouts were cut short and led into muffled noise as Hannah gently pushed their heads closer and the two ended up kissing.

"I present to you the newly married couple, Naruto and Aqua!" Hannah cried gleefully. Then picked up her backpack and emptying it of it's contents so she could carry the two in it as she had an agreement to live up to..

As she did that, Naruto and Aqua backed away from one another and as the two "newlyweds" looked at one another and came to a silent agreement:

What happened in this world, would _**STAY**_ in this world!


End file.
